There is an automobile in which an upper portion of the vehicle chamber is open so that the passengers may enjoy the open air.
The automobile of the open air type requires a member for covering its vehicle chamber to be used when required or needed as when it rains. Such a member may be a foldable or windable flexible sheet, or a top.
Representative of such an automobile is the full open type, which can be called the Cabriole type. An automobile of the full open type as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,572,570 is basically of a type designed to allow an upper portion and a rearward upper portion of its vehicle chamber to be fully open. More specifically, the automobile is provided with a front window glass panel, but no rear pillar is provided which is otherwise required in order to support the roof panel and the rearward end portion of the roof panel. Although the automobile of the full open type has the advantage that its vehicle chamber can be opened wide to the air, it poses various difficulties at the same time. The rigidity of the vehicle body is not much enhanced by this structure because neither the roof panel nor the rear pillar is mounted to the body. Such a flexible top should be constructed in such a shape as to cover both the rearward upper portion of the vehicle chamber and the upper portion thereof when 1 closed, thus complicating its structure. Furthermore, the sealing performance of the flexible top is poor when it closes the vehicle chamber.
As a result of these difficulties, the flexible top type automobile (see U. K. Patent Specification No. 1,315,364) is increasingly common. The automobile of the flexible top or canvas top type has only an opening formed on a roof panel - such an opening being referred to herein as "roof panel opening" which is covered (closed) or uncovered (opened) with a flexible sheet. The automobile of this flexible top type is provided with a roof panel having a wide opening, called the "roof panel opening," connected to the vehicle body at least through front and rear pillars in such a manner that the roof panel opening is closed or opened by the flexible top. More specifically, the roof panel is of the type such that its whole middle portion is wide open as a roof panel opening except for its front header, its left-hand and right-hand side rails, and its rear header. In other words, the front and rear headers and the side rails constitute a four-sided periphery of the roof panel opening. A front window glass panel is fixed by the left-hand and right-hand front pillars and the front header, while a rear window glass panel is fixed by the left-hand and right-hand rear pillars and the rear header.
The flexible top is in a closed state when it fully closes the roof panel opening. The flexible top is designed such that its forward end is brought into abutment with the front header of the roof panel, its left-hand and right-hand side end portions are in abutment with the left-hand and right-hand roof side rails, and its rearward end abuts with the rear header. This arrangement ensures sufficient rigidity of the vehicle body to a sufficient extent because a framework of the upper periphery of the vehicle chamber is formed by the left-hand and right-hand front pillars, front header, left-hand and right-hand roof side rails as well as rear header, such members being connected to each other. This structure further provides the advantage of simplicity because the flexible top is designed simply to open or close the roof panel opening. Furthermore, it presents the advantage that most common automobiles with a roof panel supported with front and rear pillars can be converted to those of flexible top type by small modifications. For the above reasons, recently the numbers of automobiles of the flexible top type have increased dramatically.
The automobile of the flexible top type is designed so as to take either a closed posture, or to be in a closed state, or an open posture, or to be in an open state. In the closed posture, the roof panel opening is closed by fixing a rearward end portion of the flexible top to the rear header while abutting a forward end portion of the top to the front header. In the open posture, the roof panel opening is opened wide by transferring the forward end portion of the top rearwardly toward the rear header. In this open posture, the flexible top is housed or accommodated in a folded or wound state.
For the automobiles of the conventional flexible top type, however, the flexible top in its housed state is still extends widely in a longitudinal direction so that it covers a considerable portion of the roof panel opening, thus impairing the feeling of openness for the passengers. It is further to be noted that, as the roof panel opening is open while the flexible top is housed, the flexible top is in a state that it projects upwardly from the top of the vehicle to a considerable extent, thus increasing air resistance and producing noises from wind blowing.